Fact Check

The case of Anastasia WitbolsFeugen's murder is a complicated one. This page offers a simplified overview of just some of the many things that went wrong during the investigative stage, and at Byron Case's trial. It is recommended that anyone interested in an in-depth look at the judicial aspect of the case buy J. Bennet Allen's eye-opening book, The Skeptical Juror and The Trial of Byron Case (available online from Amazon, and in Kansas City from Prospero's Books at 39th & Bell).

Trial Testimony of Kelly Moffett – Contradictions

Kelly Moffett claimed that after she was picked up by Justin and Byron on the afternoon of 10-22-97, they drove to a Kicks66 gas station and Justin had her place a phone call to Anastasia, allegedly to lure her into meeting them at the Dairy Queen on 24 Highway. Not only would this have been wholly unncessary considering Anastasia WitbolsFeugen's emotional attachment to Justin Bruton [Evidence Seized, 11-19-97], typical of most tumultuous teenage romances, but Anastasia WitbolsFeugen's sister, Francesca, testified that Anastasia had already left the house when Justin called from a gas station in Lenexa, Kansas, to say he wasn't meeting her [Francesca WitbolsFeugen Statement 10-27-97; Timeline of Events]. The timeline Kelly Moffett provided [Kelly Moffett Statement 9-21-00] contradicted the statements given by both Francesca WitbolsFeugen and Diane Marshall, Anastasia's stepmother, which indicate Anastasia had already been dropped off at Mount Washington Cemetery when Justin telephoned from Lenexa.

Part of Kelly Moffett's story includes allegations that Justin and Byron had been drinking Jack Daniels and smelled strongly of alcohol when they picked her up from her house on 10-22-97. The statements of numerous others with whom they had contact that evening, including Abraham Kneisley, Tara McDowell, and even Debra Moffett, Kelly Moffett's mother, indicate no unusual behavior by anyone, and no drunkenness.

Justin Bruton purchased a gun on 9-27-97, approximately one month before the murder, which Kelly stated she had seen. Years later, under oath, she claimed that her statements regarding that weapon had been a convenient fabrication, and that she'd never seen it.

The gun supposedly used to murder Anastasia WitbolsFeugen came, according to Kelly Moffett, from the wall of Byron Case's father's house, where she said it had been on display. Other witnesses testified that Byron's father was not a hunter and did not display any weapons in his home at all: his sister, Nancy Nolker, and his ex-wife, Evelyn Case, both of whom were very familiar with his house. Even the prosecution found Kelly Moffett's allegation unlikely, preferring instead a version of events that included the shotgun Justin purchased on 9-27-97.

In Kelly Moffett's version of the seating arrangements in Justin Bruton's two-door Honda after the group picked Anastasia WitbolsFeugen up, Justin was driving, Anastasia was in the front passenger seat, Byron Case was seated in the rear, behind Justin, and Kelly was in the passenger-side rear. For Byron Case to have pulled the keys from the ignition (to unlock the trunk) and exit the vehicle would have required either climbing over Kelly Moffett while simultaneously pushing the passenger seat forward (not the mention actually opening the door, which one would assume to be the case), pushing the driver's side seat forward to retrieve the keys and then exiting the vehicle; or pushing the driver's seat forward, exiting the vehicle and reaching back inside for the keys. None of Kelly Moffett's statements have ever indicated any activity on Byron Case's part approaching this degree of complexity, only that he "just got out" of the vehicle. This is pertinent, as Justin Bruton and Anastasia WitbolsFeugen were standing close to the car, on the driver's side, by Kelly Moffett's account, yet nothing is said of Byron's having to walk around Anastasia WitbolsFeugen or crawl across the back seat on his way to the car's trunk, as one would expect from such a story.

The United States Naval Observatory recorded that sunset occurred at 6:30 PM in Blue Summit, Missouri, on 10-22-97. Lincoln Cemetery lacks any lighting — incidentally, the moon was also in a waxing crescent phase, meaning it was less than one-half illumated and would not have provided any light in the pitch-black cemetery — which contradicts Kelly Moffett's claims she saw smoke, but no flash, come from the gun when Anastasia WitbolsFeugen was shot.

At different times, Kelly Moffett has provided different ranges with regard to how far apart Byron Case and Anastasia WitbolsFeugen were supposedly standing when the gun was fired, from eight or ten feet, to five, "or maybe a little more." Knowing from the forensic evidence and the Medical Examiner's conclusion that Anastasia WitbolsFeugen died from a contact gunshot wound to the nose, the murder weapon had to have been within six inches of her face when it was fired. Even Kelly Moffett's most conservative version would mean the gun she says Byron Case used would have to measure at least fifty-four inches. Jim Dodd, the gun store employee who sold Justin Bruton the Remington 870 (the same model he had purchased on 9-27-97) he used to commit suicide, described the model as a riot gun, with a "shorter barrel."

Following the murder, Kelly Moffett's story has Justin Bruton crying and far too shaken to drive. The statements given by Abraham Kneisley, Tara McDowell, and Kelly's own mother, Debra Moffett, contradict this claim.

The murder weapon was said to have been disposed of "not very far" from the scene — just ten or fifteen minutes, Kelly Moffett said in her first revised statement and subsequent testimony. When Sgt. Gary Kilgore of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department, lead investigator on the murder case, drove Kelly Moffett on the route she claimed had been taken to dispose of the gun on the evening of 10-22-97, the drive took them through no fewer than four cities, a distance investigator David Hill of the Jackson County Public Defender's Office measured at approximately 35 miles. According to Google Maps, there is a distance of approximately 17 miles — a thirty-minute drive — between the Blue Ridge entrance to Lincoln Cemetery and the intersection of Inland Drive and Douglas Avenue in Kansas City, KS, where Kelly Moffett alleged the gun had been discarded.

Kelly Moffett maintains that when she first claimed to have witnessed the murder of Anastasia WitbolsFeugen, it was to her father, and that she initially implicated Byron Case. Her mother, Debra Moffett, told a different tale: that in March of 2000, via an early morning telephone conversation (which occurred between 3 and 4 AM, according to Debra Moffett's trial testimony), was when Kelly first alleged to have witnessed the murder, and she had then said Justin Bruton was the killer.

The version of events Kelly Moffett supplied — that after picking Anastasia WitbolsFeugen up at the Dairy Queen Justin's vehicle ended up in Lincoln Cemetery, where the murder took place — are incompatible with those witnessed by Don Rand, a mechanic at the Amoco service station at the intersection of I-435 and Truman Road. Mr. Rand was found by Sgt. Joseph Becker of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department during a canvas of the Blue Summit area the day after Anastasia WitbolsFeugen's body had been discovered. Rand identified her by photograph as being the girl he saw exit a dark-colored car and walk eastbound — the direction of Anastasia WitbolsFeugen's home — down Truman Road on the night of the murder. Byron Case has always maintained that Anastasia WitbolsFeugen got out of Justin's car during an argument at that intersection, and that it was the last time he, Kelly Moffett, or Justin Bruton saw her.

Forensic Issues — Uncertainty

Anastasia WitbolsFeugen's time of death was never determined to either establish or preclude possible suspects in the case, which should have been a routine procedure for a homicide investigation.

Jackson County's Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Young, who performed the autopsy on Anastasia WitbolsFeugen's body, was not subpoenaed to testify at Byron Case's trial. Rather, Dr. Chase Blanchard, who was not present for the procedure and merely reviewed the written findings, testified in his place.

Dr. Edward Friedlander, the forensics expert called to testify in Byron Case's defense, said it was possible the murder weapon could have been one of a number of kinds of guns, from a large rifle to a handgun. In a sworn statement before the trial, Dr. Blanchard concurred, saying it was even possible, if unlikely, that something as small as a .22 caliber pistol had been used. Upon taking the stand at trial, however, Dr. Blanchard became evasive about her previous statement and downplayed the likelihood of that possibility.

Forensic pathologists do not have the qualifications to specifically and accurately determine the type of gun used in Anastasia WitbolsFeugen's murder, according to Dr. Blanchard. A ballistics expert or so-called "wound expert" would have been more likely to make such a determination, yet neither has ever been consulted in this case.

At Trial — Unfairness

A hard copy of the information from the U.S. Naval Observatory's records, listing the exact time of sunset on the evening of Anastasia WitbolsFeugen's murder, was introduced at trial as Defense Exhibit 30. No explanation or context was ever provided for the jury as to its purpose, however. It was unceremoniously entered into the record days after the testimony by Kelly Moffett it contradicted.

Byron Case's court-appointed attorney was denied the request to subpoena Kelly Moffett's former psychiatrist, Dr. Wendy Eaves, in the interests of confidentiality. Judge Charles Atwell agreed to issue a court order for the doctor's records, instead, and review them himself, privately. The purpose of the defense's request was to lay bare any diagnosis that could manifest as pathological lying (specifically bipolar, or personality disorder, though these were never specifically mentioned on the recorded request). Upon receiving Dr. Eaves's records, Judge Atwell granted them only a cursory review, claiming they were written in cursive and difficult to interpret. The records remained sealed and Dr. Eaves was never brought to testify.

Although the practice is not unheard of, Byron Case was represented at trial by a single lawyer from the Jackson County Public Defender's Office, but prosecuted simultaneously by two assistant prosecutors, Theresa Crayon and David Fry.

When, during her testimony, Kelly Moffett injected that she had taken a "lie detector" test administered by case investigators, an objection was raised by Byron Case's defense. Not only are such technologies inadmissible in courts nationwide, the context in which Kelly Moffett said this plainly implied she took the test after she began claiming Byron Case was Anastasia WitbolsFeugen's killer. In fact, this test was administered in 1998, years before she claimed to have witnessed the murder. Judge Atwell acknowledged the damage caused by the remark ("It's his ox that got gored," he said, referring to Byron Case) and offered to declare a mistrial. The defense was concerned the scheduling of another trial would impede several out-of-town witnesses' ability to testify, and agreed to a "curative instruction." Knowing the damage, and that a jury cannot un-hear what has been said by a witness, Judge Atwell should have declared a mistrial automatically, in the interest of justice.